Slashdot Mirror
The Next Ad You Click May Be a Virus
Jay notes a Wall Street Journal report about ad networks unintentionally selling empty space to malware loaders (the link is to a syndicating site that doesn't require a subscription to view). The submitter comments: "The labeling of the fake ad sellers as hackers is pretty bogus; there's no hacking involved. Simply sign up for one of these networks, create your fake site, put up another company's creative, and you're good to go." The incidents being reported go back a few months, but the pattern of this criminal activity seems to be coming clear only recently."EWeek.com, a technology news site owned by Ziff Davis Enterprise, in February displayed an ad on its homepage masquerading as a promotion for LaCoste, the shirt maker. The retailer hadn't placed the ad — a hacker had, to direct users to a Web site where harmful programs would be downloaded to their computers, says Stephen Wellman, director of community and content for Ziff Davis."
As a content provider (I'm the founder of http://www.livebaseballchat.com/ stuff like this annoys the hell out of me.
I mean we go to all the effort to secure passwords, code tc - then our users are infected with ads they view....
We were sourcing our banner ads from Pubmatic but after a two 'problem ads' about 3 weeks I've cut it back to Google + banners we sell internall direct to end companies.
I dont have any answers but if you have a problem with a website be sure to let the content owners know - they might not even realise they have a problem.
Cheers,
Dean Collins
http://www.livebaseballchat.com/